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A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn....

It's gonna get harder before it gets easier. But it will get better, you just gotta make it through the hard stuff first.

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Define "normal self"?

"How you are seen by
others becomes the mirror that tells you what you are like and who you are. You
need others to give you a sense of self, and if you live in a culture that to a
large extent equates self-worth with how much and what you have, if you cannot
look through this collective delusion, you will be condemned to chasing after
things for the rest of your life in the vain hope of finding your worth and
completion of your sense of self there."~ Eckhart Tolle

After a 6-hr stint at volunteering at Tejas Trail’s last
night race in the summer series (10k, 30k, 60k starting at 7pm), I had the
following email exchange.

C: Hey Olga, you didn't seem quite
like your normal self the other nights. Just wanted to see how you were doing?

I: Define "normal self". Why say?

C: Well
your "normal" self is hard to define.:-) I guess you seemed a bit
more subdued then I am use to seeing you but I may be wrong.

I: I think I am actually coming to my true normal as opposed
to what people expect to see of me. You know, not as afraid to be myself? Happy
about it too. Right place in life to finally not to pretend? And thanks for noticing.

C: I
totally get what you are saying. Happy for you that you reached that point.
Sometimes it’s hard to be ourselves.

It was a perfect timing. I have surely being thinking a lot.
The truth is, I had been thinking all my life a lot, maybe that’s my problem. As long as I remember I’ve been trying “to fit
in”. Well, most of us do, nothing special here. In middle school you’re trying
to find friends because they become more important than your parents are. In
high school the struggle continues on a much higher level. You are a straight “A”
student yet hoping to be “popular” in a wrong crowd, since being a nerd is not
really an admirable thing back in Soviets (where is it, though?), and on top of
it you are kind of wild inside…just not the crowd person. The combination of not fitting in anywhere: quietly wild or wildly quiet? So, you hung with wrong
kids and read books at night under the blanket with a flash light. You make a lot
of mistakes and tried to overcome your shyness (introvert-ness as you learn) by
often being loud. And every time you moved somewhere or entered a new
relationship, you promised yourself to be, well, yourself.

But years were passing, and struggles to find “self” continued.
The reputation (not a bad one, mind you, just different) preceded the arrival
of a real person, and ties to the past were always there and hard to break. You
leave fun times of late teens behind and date to get married – but the friends
are still around since you’re still in the same university and remember what
you’re supposed to be like. You have a child, but live in the same city. You
leave to another country – you think, NOW, really, when is the better time? –
but the fears of unknown, the “old ways” to overcome to survive and stand out
to not be stepped on “save” you from drowning, yet delaying the process. You
manage to surround yourself with people from old country – and thus, again, the
old ways.

Then you break through and start running. Like, not jogging
around the park for 20 min to lose weight, something you’d been doing since 10
years old, but entering races, and not stopping at a holly grail of a marathon even
for a smidgen of time. To move on, to overcome the resistance of “old world” you
employ the “old ways” – force to be “loud”. You’re trying to survive with this
new thing of yours, kicking and screaming! And you manage to be not bad at it
too, so between “loud” (and having a heavy accent and a straight-forward way of
communication by heritage) and that “not bad” thing, you get noticed, and
reputations keeps on building.

Years pass. You move across this new country and think: now,
new friends, new work, new life, real me. But life hasn’t taught you new
survival skills! And you fall back – running, working, laughing your way
through, reading books under the blanket cover and still thinking too much. Stuff
gets thrown at you – only nephew dies, older son gets in serious trouble,
marriage shakes and falls…and you survive using the only skills you know. You’re
getting closer to the “real normal” though now, quieter, but as soon as get in
the “old” situations, people have expectations, you know, you can’t not deliver…

Serving AS at Tejas Trail night race, photo courtesy of Henry Hobbs

You move across the country one more time. New relationship,
new friends, new job. A little calmer, although still living in old ways more
times than you want. Habits are hard to die, but even they do one by one. It
took a lifetime to build – it takes a lifetime to break. It’s give and take.
Loose a little, gain a bit. Somehow, even here though, that reputation ran
ahead, who would have thought. That doesn’t help to break free, so you make
small steps, and often nobody even notices.

Why would they? In the worlds where it’s all about survival,
carrying about someone else’s soul is but a fleeting thought. Besides, things
change, and this could be a helpful tool in that changing game.

The sport that defined you for over decade is same yet
different. Or maybe because you are different, you see it from another angle,
with glasses that are not pink. More hype – and on both ends: with faster folks
demanding fame and money and regular people simply jumping in because it’s a “thing
to do”. You should be glad of the latter one – fewer sitting at home eating
chips (they’re eating it now as they run/walk through an AS and right after
crossing the finish line), more healthier people, physically and emotionally
(one would hope anyway). But part of you joined because it was so personal and
small and almost intimate back dozen years ago. Crowds are not your thing.

So you get quieter. You have an injury, what in retrospect
is almost a God-send, because it throws you from a cycle of “train-race-repeat”
into more thinking. And you know you LOVE thinking!

"We tend to forget that
happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but
rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have." ~
Frederick Keonig

The injury eventually clears itself, after many months, but
the thinking stays. You get through one more cycle, and at the finish line of
it you stare at the enormity of life itself – and ask the BIG question: where
from here?

And there you are. Not moving in knowing direction, but
moving somewhere, hoping as you go, you’ll figure it out. You seek some help,
you think some more. And you get quieter. It scares some, surprises others.
Apparently, it gets noticed. So, carrying for someone else’s soul is not a fleeting
thought after all? Makes you all fuzzy and gives hope to keep on moving, even
if the final destination is still not defined.

Life is an amazing thing. We often can’t grasp the moment
that the change begins to happen, and then get surprised – or at least surprise
others, because deep inside we knew something is odd, off, not “normal”. It can
be triggered by something big or nothing at all. It can be overwhelming and
scary, or calm and peaceful. Mostly, it is all of the above.

Nothing is happening to a naked eye view. I am running and
training and still loving it - even if without "final destination". Still waver on the scale and pray to see numbers
I never will anymore. I may not be picking up races to sign up like crazy - after
over a 100 of the long ones and double that of short jaunts, not much left in
terms of discovering thyself or pushing the limits. And when there is
(discovering and pushing), as you get older, you are made aware of more choices:
family or trip to a 50M where you hardly know 5 people and already seeing these
trails? A house project or an extra run in a neighborhood? A 100M race where
you get through a text-book experiences and a necessary depression time between
miles 70 and 85 and then be shot emotionally and adrenal for a week, or that very
week spent with someone you care for (and who truly cares for you) in some new
wild places (and may be even not so wild)?

It’s still not defined. Neither am I. And maybe it’s the way
it should be. After all, who wants to have predictable life to a final “t”?

A perfect full moon over the lake at Tejas Trail night race, photo courtesy of Henry Hobbs

19 comments:

You definitely have to live your own life and do what's right for you. Though I have a difficult time believing you're really an introvert. I'll take your word for it of course. Sometimes we just aren't into the stuff we used to be into and our mind is elsewhere. It happens.

Good thoughts, Olga. I miss the small crowds of the old days, too, back when it seemed like we knew everyone and everyone knew us. It felt more caring back then...though here in the PNW, I can still get that feeling with old friends. It wasn't an injury that pulled me away, but going back to school. Now I'm having doubts about re-entering the fray. I've signed up for two marathons and two 25Ks that I love for the courses and the people, so I'll see how that goes. I'm glad that you are finding your real self again! Or maybe "finding" isn't right,because you always knew it was there, maybe "sharing" your real self is more accurate...

I entered the world of endurance sports through a very small and new community — snow cyclists — and moved through another that was nearly as tight-knit and small — ultra-distance bikepacking. So I understand what you mean about the more intimate connections sparked by low-key events and personal communications among the tribe. It's funny, because for me, ultra-running represented a larger, better established community with more diverse events, and that in large part is why I started to get involved. I do understand why the "old-timers" feel like they are being trampled on by all the growth. I still wonder when I'm going to get all curmudgeonly about the damn kids with their tricked-out fat bikes, how much easier they have it than I did in 2006, and how they're crowding out my favorite events (not that I'm accusing you of being curmudgeonly, only trying to relate as one of those newcomers in the ultra-running world.)

I don't know you personally and therefore have no preconceptions about you, but I've enjoyed following your journey. I appreciate that more introverts are embracing this side of themselves. Introversion doesn't have to mean we're not social, and it doesn't prevent us from forming lots of meaningful relationships. It just means a person is drained by social interactions rather than recharged. I have friends who essentially can't stand to be alone, and this baffles me. I would become mentally unstable without regular alone time, which is what I need to "recharge." I effectively had a minor nervous breakdown during the week I had to spend 16 hours a day socializing and schmoozing at Interbike in Las Vegas. It was only two years ago, but that was a turning point for me in embracing my own introversion.

Yes, define "normal self"....it changes all the time as we travel our journey of life, especially if you are a thinker! As a likewise introvert, I find it easier to process and connect with the ever present changes we experience throughout the various stages in our lives. And often the subdued-ness that comes with it is just a product of welcoming and adjusting to a transistion. Glad you are able to appreciate and ride the waves as they come to you. Great post!

Thank you for sharing your personal insight. I'm at a crossroad in my running; the answers are right here in my "normal self". Like you say, normal evolves as life changes. My running goals need to adjust to me. I'm not the brand new runner I was last year, and not yet the ultradistance runner I'd hoped to be by now. There is much to learn!

Olga, I've followed your blog for quite a while now and have thoroughly enjoyed it. My husband and I were at the race on Saturday (he ran the 60k, I did the 30k) and I thought I recognized you! I almost went up to introduce myself, but my own shyness got the better of me. Plus, I didn't want to be the creepy stalker-chick that made you rethink your entire blog's existence. =)

Thank you so much for volunteering (I LOVE volunteering at races, don't you?) and I hope I have the chance to see you at another race.

Olga, I dare say you'll have worked this out by now but I'm in the same boat; I too am a classic introvert. In essence, deeply misunderstood. However, I'm at a stage where I really don't give a sh** about what many people think because the fact is the majority of them are fake. I'd rather be me than them.

Appreciate where you came from with all the trials and errors life has thrown at you, and use it to better serve your ever changing normal. What is normal!!! If it is being like everyone else then I don't want to be normal. I like myself just the way I am. Approval not required, just respect for not all being the same.Run forward Olga.

Love the post and totally agree on how things have changed! I miss the days of small races, and seeing lots of familiar faces. I feel so anonymous now if I race. Oh well, change is inevitable. We just have to try and find the positive in it.

That was such a great post. So sad I didn't get around to reading it earlier. I find it so funny and interesting how perceptions and reality can be so different. The expectations we can't fulfill and shouldn't have to but we try to anyway. Silly. I love changes and evolving. It's what we do when we keep trying. you can't help yourself....you become more at peace.

Great marriages are the result of two mature, grown up people – both of whom have full, satisfying lives – cooperating with each other to get their needs met. In this kind of differentiated relationship, each partner compliments the other, but doesn’t complete them.

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“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” - e. e. Cummings

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." M. Scott Peck

Life is not the way it's supposed to be, it's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference. Virginia Satir

"It is not that my identity is running. But I need running to keep figuring out what my identity is."